#Cheapest coolest offline voice assistant

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barren rapids
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Hello, what's the cheapest coolest offline voice assistant? Thinking about an old Alexa or Echo running custom firmware. What's best solution for an offline voice assistant?

radiant quail
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Cheapest, coolest, or best? I feel like all three are probably different, at least in my opinion.

Cheapest: M5 Atom Echo
Coolest: Old school phone demoed in Year of the Voice
Best: Voice Preview Edition

New products and builds keep coming out though! I’m considering pairing a Respeaker Lite with my existing Sonos speakers to make up assistants. I also have been watching the Futureproofhomes Satelite1 which is in a different direction than the VPE and may be the best by the time it’s fully released.

subtle karma
subtle karma
# barren rapids Hello, what's the cheapest coolest offline voice assistant? Thinking about an ol...

You came to search the answer that doesn't exist.
Also voice assistant in HA it's not just one device. It's a complex of TTS, STT, conversation agent, and satellites. Each of that things is pretty broad topic to discuss, and doesn't have clear undisputed leader. The voice is still on early stages.

If you're talking satellites, then:

Alexa/Echo cannot be integrated into HA voice so far, and I doubt it will ever.
Google speakers can be adopted via replacing the circuit board (Onju project).
PE device is good, except of speaker. It's "preview edition" though, there are bugs.

I use satellites with Respeaker Lite (Koala mostly). Just because I could build them cheaper than PE, with identical software and better speaker. Sold my Echoes and use HA exclusively.

radiant quail
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@subtle karma kind of tangential topic, but related to “cool satellites”: but have you added a mmWave sensor to a Respeaker Lite? If I’m going to put one in every room, I feel like I may as well pens a few extra bucks and wire in presence sensing.

subtle karma
# radiant quail <@299947094674767872> kind of tangential topic, but related to “cool satellites”...

It's possible to add mmwave to Koala. The problem is: which one? Some want to use LD2450 for several targets and zoning (but it is kinda flaky), others (me including) use LD2410. There's number of others, including new one from Seeed with 60GHz heart and breathing rate picking...
Also i'm deeply sure that having sensor like this in something that you can move freely (e.g. smart speaker enclosure) isn't good. These sensors (especially ld2450) should be statically placed. So IDK if it's generally good idea to have them in.

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FPH Satellite1 Dev Kit has the ability to connect ld2450 and ld2410. There's bunch of sample code snippets around the internet too. But IDK if it will be useful...

radiant quail
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I actually wouldn’t be moving the Respeaker around because I won’t actually attach it to a speaker but mount it somewhere and then use that TTS sensor trick to playback audio on my Sonos.

subtle karma